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Solutions List
Instructions Add your solution This page is an article everyone can collectively edit. It is a list of solutions. If you have a solution idea, find the section below that best fits your solution and click the "edit" link listed to the right of the section heading. Place a short, one paragraph, description of your idea there. Click the green "Save page" button to save your changes. For detailed solutions If you have a detailed solution idea, you can create a new article to include the details. Be sure to create a link to that article in your short description on this page. If you are unsure of how to create a new article, you can leave your entire description here and other editors will create the appropriate article. Improve ideas listed You can also expand on the solution ideas already listed here, describing benefits and risks, providing analysis, or indicating sources that would be helpful in further developing the concept. For extensive expansion a new article should be created for that idea. The idea listed on this page should then be linked to that article. Discussion and debate To have general discussions about ideas you can click "Discussion" at the top right corner of this page. Solution Ideas =Prevent oil from entering the sea= Fixing BOP (BLOW OUT PREVENTER) *access mechanism in BOP that powers the cutting rams. If hydraulicly actuated, use functional BOP and attach corresponding hydraulic lines from functional BOP to lines that activate the rams. Then activiate the functional BOP ram closing process. There is limited information on the state of the BOP. Due to the lack of information released to the public by BP. It is uncertain if there is rock or some other kind of debris that is preventing the cutting ram form being trigger. It has been suggested that the actuators have been already been triggered but something is preventing them from closing. Capturing oil before it enters the sea *Using containment box or dome. This concept is already in work by BP. BP has tried two variations of this methods so far. The first was a larger 400 ton, 4 story containment box. BP has reported that the use of the larger containment box was abandoned because of Ice cystals of frozen hydrates accumulated at the top of the device which prevented oil from being pumped from the box. BP also reported that the dome became bouyant and began to float. BP's reported reasons for the failure are questioned however. It has been suggested the that pressure from the oil and methane leaking from the well was so strong that it made the containment box float. Being that this was not a closed system, this techiqued required a strong pump to suck in a combination of seawater, gas and oil with enough pressure to create a vaccuum. It has been suggested that, even given what now is a being grossly underestimated rate of flow of 5,000 barrels per day, that there is not a pump on earth capable of pumping enough oil to create a vacuum capable of sucking oil shooting out of the well. It should be stressed that the calculations given for those estimatation used only hypothetical velocities and pressures. A smaller contaiment dome, called a 'Top Hat' has also been lowered to the ocean floor. BP reported that the smaller device would be much easier to heat and prevent the formation of methane Ice Crystals. However, once that 'Top Hat' was lowered to the floor it's use was not attempted. There have been no media reports of why the smaller 'Top Hat' was abandoned, only that BP began working on a tube that would syphon oil from the leak. There have been reports that the smaller 'Top Hat' failed but main stream media now reports that the device is in place and is ready to be tried at a future time. Stopping oil from leaving drill pipe/riser *Pinch drill pipe/riser closed using hydraulic tool placed around drill pipe/riser by crane with the assistance of ROVs *Use method like balloon angioplasty in heart surgery. Insert and inflate balloon in riser. *Insert polar molecules or ferrous substances into drill pipe then apply external magnetic field to hold them in place and reduce the effective flow area through the drill pipe. *Drill hole in riser near BOP. Pump sea water through hole to rapidly cool oil and cause formation of hydrates and other fouling materials. Hole could be drilled in a contained system essentially a miniture drilling operation where the riser is the "well". *Shoot a large projectile into the pipe. Think of a cork for a champagne bottle, but it would have to be shot into place like a bullet. *Use Liquid nitogren to freeze the drill pipe and oil beneath the BOP. While the pipe is frozen remove the BOP and cover the area with a cement that could possibly be reinforced with wire mesh and or a steel cage. *Cut the BOP from the dill pipe. Construct tube, perhaps using sewer pipes, that surrounds the drill pipe and goes from the seabed to the surface. After the tube fills up it can be pumped and processed from the surface. The feasibility of smaller device working is question, with the same uncertainity of the existense of pump that create a vacuum strong enough to suck the oil after it leaves the leaking pipe begin raised. * Cork the drill pipe after cutting the BOP from the drill pipe. The cork can be attached to a long steel tube that can be guided into the drill pipe. It could also be jacked into place. The large containment dome could be used as an anchor. Optionally an inflatable device could be attached to the bottom of the cork and deflated once the device is inside the pipe. The cork can then be cemented and or weld to make the seal permanent. Slow oil/gas flowing through drill pipe in riser by reducing temperature *Use liquid nitrogen to cool the oil/gas mix and reduce the flow rate. Obstructing oil flow at BOP *Top kill: Material is pumped into the well at the BOP in an attempt to reduce the flow. This would then be followed by pumping mud and cement to seal the well. Obstructing oil flow beneath BOP *Detonate explosives next to the wellbore at a sufficient depth below the sea floor to cause collapse of the wellbore without surface leakage. This would have the advantage of reduced drilling time compared to a releif well while offering an increased risk of worsening the leak. Both the use of high explosives such as a C4 or massive amounts of TNT or the use of a Nuclear Bomb has been suggested for this technique. Using a Nuclear Bomb While the use of a Nuclear Bomb may be a harder sell to the public, it is a tried and true technique according in Russia. Russian media sources report that this technique has been succesful in 4 out of 5 attempts and recent news reports that President Obama has sent top nuclear physicist to tackle the oil spill problems provide indications that the US Goverment may be considering using this technique. It is argued that the use of enough high explosive could yeild an explosion with a yeild equivelent to a Nuclear bomb. It has also been pointed out that High explosives are often used in clearly of mountains which begs the question of why a potentially catastrophic nuclear bomb would be used in leiu of high explosives. It is also argued that while the use of Nuclear explosives have been successful in Russai, they have never been used at such a depth and the possiblity of the device creating a massive tidal wave if fired at such a depth is also brough into question. =Removing oil already in the sea= Burning oil *Burn oil on sea surface using fire booms. *Burn oil near leaks while oil is still underwater and in high concentration. This would require large amounts of energy due to the pressure, temperature, presence of water, and absence of oxygen. A furnace would likely be required that is capable of vaporizing the water that is taken in along with the oil and gas. It would also have to have an external supply of fuel and oxygen unless in situ hydrolysis of the sea water is possible. If the oil mix were able to be captured and put in a furnace on the sea floor it would likely be easier to simply pump it to the surface. Eliminating oil using chemical applications *apply dispersants on sea surface *apply dispersants at source of leak on sea floor Eliminating oil using bio-agents *disperse oil eating bacteria on oil covered sea surface *disperse oil eating bacteria at source of leak on sea floor Recovering oil from sea surface Vessel based oil/water separation technology with 50,000 gallons/hour capacity powered by RLDVPT external combustion engine:' IN SHORT:' A vessel with special hardware (arrangement for its production and montage is required) comes to the area of disaster and starts recovering the water spoiled by oil (a mixture, able to burn). Vessel-based, high performance water recovery hardware require a lot of electric power to operate and of course, a vessel needs diesel fuel to continue working non-stop (e.g. 24h) in the area of disaster. It is possible to recover a few dozens of tonns (m3) of spoiled sea water in 1 hour with our solution. To let this work BRILLIANT, we researched and implemented the new type of external combustion engine called RLDVPT, designed to be a heart of OUTSTANDING electric power station, able to take heat energy from burning mixture. RLDVPT is a new type of external combustion engine and it uses, as input power, just heat. Solar energy (for example) is another source of energy to provide heat to RLDVPT to generate electric current. All required electric current for any type of bestfit water recovery station and for vessel movement in the area of disaster would be produced until spoiled sea water, able to burn, is exist in that area. From burning mixture, heat energy would power RLDVPT and RLDVPT would power with electric current the water recovering station. Chain of hardware operates quick, efficient and with high performance output. Given solution may be used IN ANY case of disaster in the world, current or future, when sea water is spoiled by oil. We recommend to use our water recovery station as complete solution with RLDVPT, as we see huge amount of waste put to the Gulf of Mexico daily and just small amount to be utilized by local forces. =Preventing oil from reaching the coast= *seed clouds over gulf to reduce temperature and create low pressure in atmosphere to generate wind that blows oil to sea Physical obstructions to stop oil from reaching coast *use booms that float in the sea to prevent surface oil from reaching coast *Equip oil super tankers with massive pumps to process oil in the Gulf. : This technique has been used before in Saudi Arabia on a blowout that leaked much more oil than what BP and the Government claim is leaking from this blowout and it recovered over 85% of the oil lost. Oil super tankers would be empty of oil and massive pumps would suck up massive amounts of oil and take it to port where it could be further processed and the captured oil can then be processed and used later : In comparison, it is reported that as little as 5-15% of the oil leaked from the Exxon-Valdez spill was ever retrieved. : It has been reported that this technique has been suggested to BP who declined to use it because it would cost them to much money. BP then threatened to sue if a revelation of this suggestion was made public. : With the latest news reports that massive plumes of oil are now floating beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, which may be due to the use of dispersants to hide the amount of oil that is actually leaking, this method may not recover the 85% of oil that was covered in the Saudi Spill. Howerver, if the use of dispersants is stopped the oil that raises to the surface could then be collected and processed. =Ideas for methods and technology to increase underwater operations capacity= In this section place ideas that increase the operations options so that the 5000ft between the surface and leak are less an obstacle. Essentially answer the question, "what tools would enable us to treat this spill more like it were on dry land?" *Use the 100 ton containment boom used in a prior solution attempt as a fixture and datum for sea floor operations. ROV's and other equipment could be attached to the boom allowing the use of higher forces and more controlled motion relative to the leak. *Create a large concrete and steel submersible workstation with docking capability that would allow robots designed for standard atmospheric environments to operate on the sea floor. =Uncategorized Solutions-solutions that don't fit in above categories= =Solutions Posted Other Places Online= *In situ burning of oil, collapsing of riser using heavy concrete block, insertion of balloon into drill pipe http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts2/070oilspillsolution.html * Wall Street Journal graphic of "top hat", containment dome, relief wells, and tube insertion solutions being attempted by BP. *Information on "junk shot" approach at Mediaite.com =References=